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© UnknownThey have always been underground in a deep dark hole
Following the debacles and disasters in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has actually adopted a new role to avoid direct engagement, like in Syria, to go underground and conduct secret operations, an analyst says.

"The decision to pull back on massive engagements of military force does not mean force is not going to be used. It just goes underground," Gordon Adams wrote on the website of Foreign Policy on Wednesday.

"Arguably, today the U.S. military is more involved than ever overseas, on a global basis, carrying out missions that extend well beyond classic military competencies," he added.

Adams said that the approach, described by the Pentagon and the White House as "building partner capacity" is a "stealthy" model which focuses on training and equipping the troops from other countries, allowing the US military to make smaller deployments to more countries across the world.

The U.S. has indirectly and unofficially been facilitating the deployment of arms to the militants in Syria while the White House only recently authorized the CIA to provide the armed groups in the Arab country with more weapons, Adams said.

"But well before this announcement, lethal weapons had been flowing to the Syrian rebels. While the hardware was not supplied from American stocks, the United States has been playing an active role in facilitating the traffic," the article read.
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© UnknownSpecial operations forces from Iraq, Jordan and the U.S. stand in formation wearing gas masks following a combined demonstration as part of Eager Lion multinational military maneuvers in Jordan, June 20, 2013.
The U.S. is actually equipping Jordan, one of its Middle Eastern allies, by leaving its Patriot missiles and F16 fighters, as well as 700 troops, in the country after a recent joint military drill. Hundreds of US special forces have for months been training Jordanian forces as well as the militants in Syria in the country.

The U.S. has also deployed hundreds of troops as well as Patriot missile system to Turkey, Syria's northern neighbor.

The U.S. military is also considering ways to send troops to Lebanon and Iraq and is planning to accelerate sales of weapons to these countries, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday.